Return to Sparta

I tried creating an artwork like this once before, in 2014, but failed miserably. The idea then sat on the backburner of my brain for years. Until I finally gave it another chance earlier this month and then finished it last night. Here we have a Spartan warrior who has been through countless battles and is finally returning home. I put in some European geese (almost added Canadian geese by mistake!) flying home as well as an added detail. I tried to make the warrior look tired with his shoulders slumped. His skin is dirty and scarred. I tried to thin out the crest on his helmet, but it didn’t render quite the way I wanted it to. Still, it did thin out a bit. I hope he was victorious in his battles… Ancient Sparta wasn’t very welcoming to losers.

I rendered this piece in Superfly with depth of field on. I used a single point light as my “sun” in the background to match the skydome. I used the skydome as an ambient light and added a very faint area light in the foreground to light up the warrior a bit. In postwork, I used several adjustment layers to alter the contrast in various ways then ran the image through ON1 Effects to alter the contrast further and enhance the sharpness. Finally, I added a slight glow effect from the sky.

Most of these items are available from the Renderosity Marketplace (unless otherwise noted):

• Greek Hero Armor by Cybertenko
• Flock Formations by Ken Gilliland
• Stone Path by vikike176
• Flinks Sky 2 – Dramatic Skies by Flink
• Copper and Blood by coflek-gnorg